Perceiving is Believing
by ReidsFanGirl18
Summary: 5 students were murdered on the CLMU campus, after Dr. Daniel Pierce is brought in as a suspect under questionable pretenses, the police and local FBI have almost nothing to go on the BAU is called in. Despite a lack of evidence Daniel remains a suspect, Reid refuses to believe that his friend is capable of this, his loyalty and Daniel's future remain at stake Rated-T Mature Themes
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Arrested

It was in the pre-dawn hours of the morning, long before sunrise. When the outside world was still dark, the streetlamps providing the only light. Professor Daniel Pierce, was in his study, quietly reading and critiquing a recently released Abnormal Psychology textbook. It wasn't a surprise that the contributors had asked him for the review. He had written several such books of his own and was a nationally renowned expert on the ethical issues surrounding the treatment of the mentally ill.

Few, knew just how personal the things he wrote about were for him. He was so absorbed in writing about how horrendously they relied of stereotypes and had a crushing lack of individual case studies showing the variety of prognosis, that he didn't even notice his wife, Kate, standing there in the doorway.

"Daniel…" She finally said aloud to get his attention.

"Huh?" he asked when he looked up and saw her standing there.

"It's late…" she replied.

"It is…wh-what time is it?" He asked.

"Almost three in the morning…" she said, moving behind his office chair and hugging him from behind.

Daniel could feel her warmth through his shirt, the touch of her soft brown hair against his skin. This was what he'd needed all these years, love, a strong, human connection, with a woman who not only loved him, but accepted him for who he was, despite his instability, the way Kate always had even when they had been nothing more than friends. It still astounded him that it had taken him so long to realize that what, and who, he really needed was right in front of him the whole time.

Kate leaned over and kissed his neck affectionately.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to wake you up…"

"Don't be. Are you coming to bed sometime before I leave for work?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm sorry…" He replied. "Just…every time I close my eyes, all I can see is those students who've died recently, they were all my students Kate…"

"I know, but I also know you, you know what can happen if you don't get enough sleep. Do you want to relapse? Remember what happened last time?" she asked.

"Kate…I'm fine, I'm stable, and I finally found a medication combination that works for me without effecting my mind too much…I'll be fine… I just have to finish giving these armatures a lesson in objectivity, then I'll be up." He promised.

"Ok, well I'm going back to bed, goodnight…"

"Goodnight…" He replied in kind.

Several hours later, Daniel, having fallen asleep at his desk, jolted awake to the sound of a distinctly unfriendly knock on his front door.

_How can Kate not hear that? _He thought.

Then he looked at the clock. It was eight-twenty already, Kate had been at work for over an hour by now.

"CPD! Dr. Daniel Pierce, we have a warrant for your arrest! Surrender now and we won't harm you!"

_What the Hell? _

He got up, went over and opened the door.

"Is there a problem officers?" He asked politely.

But before anyone spoke, the grabbed him, turned him around and handcuffed him.

"Dr. Daniel J. Pierce, you are under arrest for the murders of Anita White, Eli Ching, Kyle Tyler, April Cane, and Iban Cook… you have the right to remain silent, anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law…." One of the officers recited.

Just then, Daniel's teaching assistant, Max, came down the stairs and rushed over to his boss.

"What the hell is going on here…?"

"I'll tell you what's going on here, he's coming with us…" Another officer said while his partner continued to read Daniel his rights.

"Lewiki! Call Kate! Tell her what's happened! She'll know what to do!" Daniel yelled as he was forced into a police car.

"I'm on it Doc, we got your back ok? Just stay calm, we'll get ya outta this…" Max replied.

Meanwhile, Kate was hard at work at the Chicago field office when her office phone rang.

"Hey Max, what's up?" She answered.

"Kate, you gotta come down to Chicago PD…"

"Why? Did they get a case and involve Daniel before me?" She asked.

"Not exactly…" He replied.

"Then what's up?"

"Well, you know those murders on the CLMU campus in the last couple of months?" he asked.

"Yeah…everybody knows about that, what's this about?"

"This is gonna sound crazy but um… they think Doc did it…they arrested him about twenty minutes ago."

"Wait a second, hold up…they actually think that Daniel…our Daniel…Dr. Daniel J. Pierce…is a murderer?" She asked in astonishment.

"Not just a murderer, a serial killer…"

"What? That's impossible…on what grounds? You and I both know that Daniel's not capable of hurting anybody."

"They're saying that because he's 'unstable' and because he interacted with all the victims; that he's the best lead they got right now."

"Oh my God…are they seriously using his schizophrenia as grounds to pin this on him?"

"I don't think they realize it but…yeah that's basically what it sounds like…"

"Damn it…ok, don't worry about it Max, I'll take care of this…"

"Doc said you'd know what to do…so what do we do now?"

"Now? Now I call in the cavalry…"

"Say what?"

"Daniel had connections in the Bureau before he ever met me…I'm calling an old friend of his, SSA Dr. Spencer Reid…He was one of Daniel's first students, from his intro class, his very first semester as a teacher…he went on to join the FBI and become a profiler with the Behavioral Analysis Unit."

"Why have I never heard of this guy before?" Max asked.

"Probably because he lives in Quantico Virginia and works out of headquarters, also based on how close they are and how long they've known each other you probably have, you just might not have connected the dots. He knows Daniel better than just about anybody, maybe even better than me, so there's no way he's going to jump to the conclusion that Daniel did this. Plus, if there's anybody who hates the mistreatment of the mentally ill more than Daniel, it's Spencer." She explained, already moving into a more private space where other agents were unlikely to overhear her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Conflict of Interest

It was midmorning in Quantico, when Spencer Reid was sitting at his own desk, finishing up the reports from the previous case, which they had returned home from the previous day, when his cellphone buzzed on the desk, next to where he was writing.

The name on the caller ID wasn't unfamiliar to him, just unexpected. What did Kate Moretti want with him? To plan a birthday surprise for her husband, and his longtime friend? Daniel's birthday had been barely a month ago, surely it was a little early to start on next year wasn't it? But the only other explanation was that there was something wrong. He picked up the phone and answered it.

"Kate? What's up?"

"Spencer we have a serious problem here…" She admitted.

"What's wrong? Is Daniel alright?" he asked.

"Actually, he was arrested this morning by the local police…"

"On what charges?" He asked in disbelief.

"Five counts of murder in the first degree…"

"What? That's impossible, Daniel's been perfectly stable lately and even when he's not, he isn't violent…more than a little paranoid and pushy perhaps but there's no way he's capable of murder…"

"I know, but there's been a series of local murders recently, five students have been murdered on the CLMU campus in the last two months, the most recent body was found just before sunrise this morning and the locals came to our house and picked Daniel up for it…"

"What evidence do they have? How could they think for even a second that he did this?"

"Well, they've been pretty tight lipped about forensic evidence but um…" she paused, her voice falling to a whisper. "To be honest, from what I can gather their reasons for arresting him seem to boil down to all the victims being enrolled in Daniel's classes, and his schizophrenia…."

"Ok, how ignorant are these cops? Schizophrenics are rarely psychopathic, even more rarely violent, and there are very specific indicators that would be present in the MO if the Unsub was Schizophrenic…"

"I know, why do you think I called you? I don't think those idiots know the difference and honestly I don't think they care. They need an Unsub is custody, Daniel had proximity to the victims and there's a documented psychological disorder in his file so he's their assumed fall guy…"

"Have there been any requests for Federal involvement?"

"I don't know for sure, but I know that CPD was considering calling the BAU in on the campus murders, but they might recant the request now that they have a suspect in custody…" she told him.

"Well hopefully not, either way I'll be there as soon as I can…we'll get this sorted out and clear Daniel's name, my team and I are really good at what we do."

That's when he heard Hotch calling everyone to the conference room.

"Listen, Kate, I have to go, but I'll be there in a few hours, it'll be ok…" He told her, then he hung up and followed his co-workers to the conference room.

Once they were all inside, Garcia grabbed her remote and stood up.

"Ok, get ready crime fighters, you are jetting off to Chicago's east side, because in the last two months, five students at Chicago Lake Michigan University have been murdered and dumped on campus…they were each strangled with a rope, but not hung by it, first, and then the Unsub beat them over the head with a blunt object. The most recent victim was discovered on campus just before sunrise." She explained.

It was Morgan who spoke first.

"Do the police have any leads?"

"Actually they do, but they're shaky as all get out, which is why they turned it over to our friends at the Chicago field office and why they in turn, are asking for our help… They have a suspect in custody, Dr. Daniel Pierce, he's a professor at the university and all the victims were in at least one of his classes, but there's really nothing else connecting the victims to each other, at least not that they've found, and nothing connecting him to the crime scenes themselves or any of the victims on a more personal level."

"Is there any other reason that the police think Dr. Pierce is their guy?"

"Yeah…here's the part that got us called in, and why even I kinda wanna tell this guy to lawyer up… Dr. Pierce is a diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenic…"

"That's not probable cause, at least not legal probable cause…" Reid reminded them, speaking up for the first time.

He had stated a simple fact, one that were all aware of, but Hotch could tell that Reid's words carried more with them than what they appeared to at face value. It took him a second, but he managed to read between the lines.

"Reid, do you know this man?" Hotch asked bluntly.

"Yes, Dr. Pierce is an old friend of mine, we met when I was in his general psychology and introduction to neuroscience classes my first semester at Caltech. I know it's early in the investigation, but I'm telling you, schizophrenia or no schizophrenia, there's no way that Daniel is capable on this. To me, these charges are just as ridiculous as when Chicago PD thought Morgan was a serial killer, it doesn't make any sense."

"Reid, I know it's hard to imagine your friend as a murderer but…it is possible that he did this without knowing what he was doing…" Morgan reminded him. "I'm not saying he's guilty, I'm just saying that it's worth checking out.

"Then the first step to either clearing Daniel's name or proving CPD's theory is going to be to talk to his wife and his teacher's assistant, because of the disorganization that accompanies Daniel's condition, his teacher's assistant helps him with a lot more than just managing his classes, he basically keeps Daniel's whole life and even lives with them, which means that if Daniel disappeared around the time of any of the murders or came home with bloody hands or clothes, he would know about it."

"Reid, I hate to be blunt but…this presents a conflict of interest and I'm wondering if you can really be objective with your friend's future, freedom, and possibly life on the line…." Hotch told him.

"Hotch, I understand the concern, but I need to be on this case. No one knows better than me that if he's innocent, which personally I don't doubt, the way to make everyone else see that is to prove it by finding our real Unsub." Reid explained, giving his boss and friend a pleading look.

"Ok, then let's go…wheels up in thirty everyone…" Hotch commanded, and the meeting dissolved as the team left to pack or grab their bags for the case ahead.


End file.
